Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1974 (2. évfolyam, 3-5. szám)
1974 / 5. szám
HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER BOOKS Csapodi, Csaba. THE CORVINIAN LIBRARY: HISTORY AND STOCK. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1973 (Vol. 1 of “Studia Humanitatis,” publications of the Center for Renaissance Research.)516 pages,illustrations.$24.00 cloth. When the fortress of Buda was recaptured from the Ottomans in 1686, an Italian military engineer, Luigi Marsigli, discovered what he believed were the remnants of King Matthias’ famous library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana. Shortly thereafter, the first publication on the library appeared by Julius Pflugk: Epistola ad Vitum a Seckendorf, praeter fata Bibliothecae Budensis, librorum quoque ultima expugnatione repertorum catalogum exhibens. (Jenae, 1688.) Since then, hundreds of books and articles have been written on the subject, and facsimiles printed. Nevertheless, many questions in regard to content, identification of scribes, bindings, and the number of original codices remain unanswered.Csapodi offers a point of departure for research aimed at the assessment of the size and the historical role the library once played in Central European humanism. The introduction of the volume discusses the historical antecedents, stages of development, size and composition of the stock, and the dispersion of the library which began shortly after the death of King Matthias in 1490. A thorough listing of previous surveys on the stock of the library is followed by a description of all known surviving manuscripts, by inference to lost volumes and by a critical discussion of previous accounts. The appendix gives a concordance list, places of preservation (six volumes are stored in U.S. libraries i.e. at the libraries of Harvard U., Yale U., the New York City Public Library, and in the Pierpont Morgan Library of New York), types of coats of arms, description of arms occurring in the Corvinian manuscripts, and index of names of scribes and illuminators, and an index of names of possessors. Fenyő, Mario D. HITLER, HORTHY, AND HUNGARY; German-Hungarian relations 1941-1944. New Haven and London: Yale U. Press, 1972. (Yale Russian and East European Studies, no. 11.) 279 pages, biblio. $12.50 cloth. The author, who is Assoc. Prof, of History at Boston U., examines issues of Hungarian history of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Events leading up to the Hungarian declaration of war, the role of the Hungarian military in war and diplomacy, the political, economic, and social aspects of German-Hungarian relations, peace efforts, the coup d'etat of October 15, 1944, and the impact of the war on Hungary constitute the backbone of the volume. The study, which is based on the author’s doctoral dissertation, uses as its main source the German documents available in the National Archives of the U.S., and some important documents from the Hungarian National Archives, in addition to a large number of secondary sources. The author had also access to a unique source, to his father’s (Miksa Fenyő, Member of the Upper House of the Hungarian Parliament) secret diary and personal counsel. He concludes by saying that “In some respect Hungary's role in World War II was not different from that of Germany’s other allies; in other respects it was unique. Hungary was both an ally of Germany and a country betrayed by Germany.” In addition to exploring the truth of controversial events, the author also makes efforts to “illuminate human nature” through describing diplomats, politicians of the era and their politics. Garancsy, Gabriella. LABOUR LAW RELATION AND ITS TERMINATION IN HUNGARIAN LAW. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó', 1973. 117 pages. $5.00 cloth. The New Economic Mechanism necessitated changes in labor law, which culminated in the promulgation of the new Hungarian Labor Code of January 1,1968. The Code is not a collection of detailed instructions but rather establishes principles concerning fundamental rights of employees and enterprises, their safeguards, and the manner of settling labor disputes. The code contains skeleton provisions to be filled by government decrees and collective contracts. Garancsy’s study deals with questions related to the right to work and employment, to notice by the employer in socialist legal systems, to Hungarian regulations of the employer’s right of notice, to termination of employment by notice and other forms, and to procedures connected to notice, and the legal consequences of notice. The study is based primarily on regulation by Hungarian statutory law, literature on law, and field investigation. Using comparative methods, it informs on similar practices of other socialist countries, and in general presents the basic ideological tenets in regard to the purpose of work and employment in the framework of civic rights and duties. King, Robert R. MINORITIES UNDER COMMUNISM. Nationalities as a Source of Tension among Balkan Communist States. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U. Press, 1973. 356 pages, tables, maps, biblio. $14.00 cloth. Most of the writings related to minorities of the area examine East European nationalism in the framework of relations between the Soviet Union and the small communist states.
